Peace & Love Festival

Peace & Love is the largest festival in Sweden and theonly one with an outspoken message of Solidarity, Diversity and Understanding, which runs through the whole event. It started in 1999 and is located in Borlänge, Sweden. The festival is a part of an organization which is involved in other projects besides the festival in Borlänge.

The concept of the Peace & Love festival is to spread the message of Diversity, Solidarity and Understanding. It’s about crossing borders and bringing differing cultures from near and afar together and trying to get people to change their attitudes towards themselves and others.

History

The Peace & Love festival was first held in 1999, as a reaction to the ongoing violence. The first festival was held at a club in central Borlänge, with about 900 attendees. Since then the festival has been held at different locations i central Borlänge. The Peace & Love festival is still one of Scandinavia's fastest-growing festivals. In 2006 there were 15,000 visitors per day, with over 37,000 people attending in total. The 10th Peace & Love festival was in 2008 and had a record of 25000 visitors, which made them the second biggest festival in Sweden.

2008

This year was the big break for the festival. The tickets sold out as early as 23 May, and the festival got a lot of attention in nationwide media. 2008 was celebrated as the tenth festival. Artist that played, amongst others, were Sex Pistols [UK], Manu Chao [FR/ES], Kent, Teddybears, The Wombats [UK], Crystal Castles [CAN]. As a late surprise Roky Ericson and the nomads was announced.

2009

The festival was held between 22 June and 27 June. This year Peace & Love became Sweden's biggest festival with 41 685 tickets sold. Some of the bigger bands and artists were: Mötley Crüe (US), The Kooks (UK), Volbeat (DK), Milow (BE), Keane (UK), Thåström and Håkan Hellström.

2010

In 2010, the event took place between June 28 and July 3 - the same weekend as other major scandinavian festivals Roskilde Festival and Hove Festival. The festival broke that record yet again, selling 42 000 tickets. This year, amongst others, Jay-Z, Lily Allen, Patti Smith, The Kooks and Kent.

Source: Wikipedia

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Offroads Band

Offroads Band Photo: (From left) Sam, Apai, Zeeban and Gary

OFFROADS

Members

Sam Sweed - Lead Guitar / Vocal / Harmonica

Apai – Rhythm Guitar

Zeeban – Bass

Gary – Drums / Percussion

Genre: Roots, Rock, Reggae

Location: Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur, MY

Origins: Malaysia, Mauritius and Maldives

Status: Independent

Biography

Like mad scientists in a lab, Offroads love mixing in various genres into one

psychedelic shot to create something rather exquisite and interesting. But at

the same time, they stay true to what was core to them – roots, rock and

reggae.

Hailing from Malaysia, Mauritius and Maldives, they met by chance and

formed a band in 2012. Though challenges arise at first, they managed to

finalize a stable line-up within a few weeks. They made a debut at an open

mic session in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, where they were offered to

headline the next gig. Since then, Offroads had been making their way

through various music scenes.

Offroads switched from covers to originals as soon as they can. Coming from

different regions and music backgrounds, they experiment with eclectic styles

and subtle rhythms to create dynamic chord progressions. Growing up with a

heart for reggae explains the eccentric groove and soul present prominently

in their music. Besides grasping every gig opportunity as possible, they are

currently working on an EP to be released in the near future.

Creating music that clearly speaks to who and what they are, Offroads is sure

as hell way off the common roads.

Archive

- Performed for various events @ Limkokwing University Cyberjaya (2011)

- Performed @ Putrajaya/Cyberjaya Jazz Community (January/February 2012)

- Performed @ J.O.M. Doppel Kafe Kuala Lumpur (January 2012)

- Performed for Wedding function @ Hee Lai Ton, Serdang (February 2012)

- Headliner @ J.O.M. Doppel Kafe Kuala Lumpur (February 2012)

- Performed @ Jazz Against Slavery, Cyberjaya (March 2012)

- Performed @ Feedback Open Mic, The Bee Publika (March 2012)

- Performed @ Towards Gathering Million Of Youths, Ampang (March 2012)

- Performed @ Saintʼs Last of Guiness Sets, Kota Damansara (April 2012)

Tel No:

017-6668742 & 017-2328742 (Sam) / 018-3526757 (Apai)

Facebook Links:

https://www.facebook.com/offroadsofficial

Youtube Link:

http://www.youtube.com/OffroadsOfficial

Email add:

offroadsofficial@gmail.com

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Malaysian Reggae Community

www.facebook.com/sunsplasher

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Reggae Sunsplash

Reggae is Jamaica's largest cultural export, and since its humble beginnings from the ghettos of Kingston, reggae has grown to become a worldwide cultural and musical expression. There are reggae bands from every habitable continent of the world, and as with music from the Jamaican source, reggae is a vehicle to teach, uplift, and inspire. The music that came from the ghettos has been the most powerful voice of the downpressed, music that carries the cry from Trenchtown (the Kingston neighborhood so named for the open sewer trench) to the heavens—if you want to hear the heartbeat of The People, listen to Reggae music! Since the early days in Jamaica, and through to the present day worldwide, Reggae is filled with Social commentary, reflections on life (often by the poor and those marginalized by society), musings on systemic corruption- living in Babylon, a call to love, raising African consciousness, repatriation, teaching self-reliance, and of course—rejoicing the blessings of life, and giving praises and exaltations to Jah Rastafari...

Jamaica's booming tourist industry is fueled largely by the world's love and fascination for Reggae Music and Jamaican culture. Tourists come to enjoy Jamaica's many festivals, including Sunsplash (which has also toured multiple times outside of Jamaica), Sumfest, Rebel Salute, Sting, White River Reggae Bash, among others. Not only has reggae become Jamaica's largest cultural export, but the large Jamaican and Caribbean communities in the United Kingdom (London and Birmingham particularly) have made the UK the second-capitol for reggae. Germany, France, Italy, many parts of the US—especially the coasts, plus Hawaii...Brazil, Argentina...all of these nations are skankin' and swayin' to the beats of their own native reggae bands. Most notably throughout the past 5-7 years, the U.S. Virgin Islands have been producing a new wave of strictly conscious roots reggae music.

Types of Reggae

Ska The original sound of reggae (pre-reggae), played in Jamaica in the early 1960's, originated largely by the island's resort and studio players who came together to form The Skatalites. The early hits from The Wailing Wailers, such as "One Cup Of Coffee," "Simmer Down," and the original "One Love" are all great examples of ska featuring vocals. (A large part of original Jamaican ska was instrumental—check anything from The Skatalites! The Skatalites were the instrumental backing band for some of the early Wailers' tracks.) Ska relies heavily on the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone to carry the melodies, and has a prominent steady upbeat carrying the music forward.

Rocksteady is similar to ska, yet with a slight slowing of the tempos: not quite as fast beat per-beat as ska. While the horn sections could still be heard in some of the rocksteady era, more importance is placed on the piano and guitar in both the rhythm section, as well as the melodic role. Rocksteady begins to slow the baselines down, and thickens the feel—a direct precursor to reggae. Alton Ellis (The King of rocksteady: "Girl I've Got A Date" a seminal rocksteady track, that thanks to U-Roy's "Wake The Town," would also form the basis for the dawn of the Deejay era), Bob Andy, Ken Boothe, Toots & The Maytals, The original Wailers are all performers of rocksteady

Reggae, like ska and rocksteady, reggae emphasizes an off-beat, syncopated guitar, piano, or sometimes horn chop (known as the 'skank' rhythm), only in reggae the tempo is slower, the skank is heavier than in ska and rocksteady, the bass even heavier and thicker. Reggae also has a greater predominance of lyrics dealing with spiritual calling, faith, poverty, systematic down-pression, Babylon tribulations, ganja, and—back to that spiritual calling: Rastafari! Much of Reggae is nothing short of a devotional form of music celebrating the teachings, life and works of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, praises to The King Of Kings, chants and exaltations to The Conquering Lion of The Tribe Of Judah, "sighted" or "seen" by Rasta to be "Christ in his Kingly Character." (Rasta will differentiate 'belief' in Selassie vs. 'knowledge' of The King, saying that in belief there can still be doubt, while in knowledge there is only certainty.) Reggae in and of itself is still nowadays a general and broad description of style, wide-ranging, deep and wide in its breadth, and includes several sub-genres:

The Reggae Sunsplash festival was the brainchild of four Jamaicans - Tony Johnson, Don Green, Ronnie Burke and John Wakeling.[1] The four founding directors created a company called Synergy Productions Ltd, which was responsible for promoting and producing the Reggae Sunsplash festival.[1]

The first Reggae Sunsplash festival was staged at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica in June 1978 and began at dusk and continued until dawn for seven days. It was billed as the "biggest Reggae festival in the history of the world". The festival introduced the concept of music and travel as a boost to tourism in Jamaica.[1] Prior to the staging of Reggae Sunsplash, the hotels in Jamaica were traditionally closed during the summer period.[2] The four founding partners staged the festival each year for a number of years and successfully created an annual summer tourist season in Jamaica. The success of Reggae Sunsplash led to a wave of annual music festivals in Jamaica and the Caribbean islands. The festivals popularity led to a shortage of hotel rooms and a tradition of camping out on local beaches.

From 1981 the festivals were filmed and recorded, with several videos and albums released, the first being Reggae Sunsplash '81: Tribute to Bob Marley, released by Elektra Records.[1] From 1987 the festival included a sound clash event, with finalists from a national sound system competition competing as a precursor to the rest of the festival.[1] The festival also expanded to include an 'oldies night' featuring stars from past eras of Jamaican music.[1] For many years the festival was emcee's by Tommy Cowan.[4]

In 1984 the Reggae Sunsplash festival also expanded into international events with a one day festival staged at the Crystal Palace in London, England. In 1985 the Reggae Sunsplash World tour was launched in the USA and Japan and subsequent years saw the Reggae Sunsplash festival touring extensively throughout North America, Europe, South America and the Far East. 1991 saw the introduction of a 'Caribbean Night' featuring other Caribbean music such as soca, and the following year the festival's scope increased further with the addition of a 'World Beat Night'.

While the festival had become hugely popular, opening new global tourist niche markets to Jamaica and attracting millions of dollars of foreign exchange into the country, it had not been a financial success, largely due to the lack of sponsorship or government support. In 1995 the Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board operating through a company called Radobar Holdings Ltd offered financial assistance in exchange for equity in Synergy Productions, the founders of Reggae Sunsplash. This initial offer was never consummated and in a disputed claim Radobar Holdings announced the formation of a company called Reggae Sunsplash International in Jamaica and proceeded with the hostile take over of the Reggae Sunsplash festival. The first attempt at staging Reggae Sunsplash without the original owners Synergy Productions in 1996 was a financial disaster for the new claimants. In 1997 the Reggae Sunsplash festival was postponed until 1998 when it was timed to coincide with celebrations of the birth of Bob Marley but more losses were incurred. More futile attempts at recapturing the original spirit of the Reggae Sunsplash festival were never replicated by the Radobar group. New Tune For Reggae Sunsplash", Black Enterprise, November 1997.

The festival was re-established by the Johnson family in 2006, but it was not successful.[5][2] The international touring festival, however, has continued.

Two of the founding directors, John Wakeling and Tony Johnson died and with the passing of Tony Johnson a number of individuals have tried to claim the rights to the festival unsuccessfully and all have failed to recapture the spirit of the legendary Reggae Sunsplash. Don Green and Ronnie Burke are the two remaining Reggae Sunsplash founders alive.

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